Bodies Of Ebola Victims Being Abandoned In The Streets In Liberia

The deadly scourge of Ebola means people here no longer shake hands when greeting each other. In taxi cabs where people used to cram onto the laps of others, drivers now can carry only four people or risk fines.

Plastic buckets are selling at a record pace to people who fill them with chlorine to disinfect their hands.

And Monday Liberian health authorities ordered that all Ebola victims must be cremated as the virus blamed for killing at least 729 people across West Africa shows no sign of slowing down. At least 17 bodies have been abandoned on Monrovia’s streets in recent days, health officials say.

West Africa is experiencing the worst recorded Ebola outbreak in history, and the virus now has infiltrated three African capital cities. Never before has the disease with a fatality rate of at least 60 percent become so entrenched in urban population centers.